


Hardest Decision

by Tarlan



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Angst, Community: mcsheplets, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-01
Updated: 2012-10-01
Packaged: 2017-11-15 11:02:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 867
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/526575
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tarlan/pseuds/Tarlan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rodney seeks comfort in the arms of a friend.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hardest Decision

**Author's Note:**

> **Warning:** Pet loss angst!  
>  Written for: **mcsheplets** prompt #129 Pet and **ancientctybingo** prompt #14 Mail Call

Leaving his cat behind on Earth was the hardest decision Rodney made when it came to the Atlantis Expedition.

A possible one-way trip to a distant galaxy was just a single tick in the minus column compared to the hundred ticks he put into the plus column for all the discoveries lying ahead of him. This was Atlantis, the city that sank beneath the waves. This was a legend handed down through countless generations for ten thousand years - and he could go there. He could see this city with his own eyes, and if she was anything like the Ancient outpost found in Antarctica on Earth then she would be magnificent.

"Still, I nearly balked when I thought of leaving Haydn behind," he murmured, even though he'd only had the cat for a short time.

Rodney had spotted Haydn not long after returning from Siberia and before heading out to Antarctica. He had found him eating trash out of the bins in the alley behind his apartment block in the small military complex that housed the scientists at Area 51.

"I missed him here in Atlantis, especially in those early days when everything was so... creepy," and dark. He still recalled burying his face in Haydn's fur, and how it had always made him feel so safe and so loved - unconditionally.

Rodney thought of his neighbor, Lauren, who was one of those soft scientists that spent all her time looking at dusty tomes - like Daniel Jackson.

"Soft sciences," he scorned. Yet for all her problems with Rodney, "At least she'd loved Haydn just as much as me," and had willingly opened her arms and home to his cat whenever he had to go away. She had promised to send him photos of Haydn and, strangely enough, she'd come through on that promise. He had a stack of digital images sent over the years that followed, and though not every mail call brought new pictures, he had eagerly looked forward to the weekly communication just in case.

"Before we left for Atlantis that first time, I extracted a promise that if I ever returned for Haydn then she would willingly let him go."

After the Ancients kicked them out of Atlantis, he'd learned that it was one promise Lauren wasn't willing to keep, and that she would fight tooth and expensively manicured nail to keep Haydn. But at least she had allowed him to see Haydn whenever he returned to Area 51, and she had allowed him to bury his face in Haydn's fur one last time before he walked away for good this time, finally willing to let Haydn go because...

"Jen hated cats."

Of all the things that could break them up, it was a fight over what kind of pet they should have in their immaculate, small town, white-picket fenced house. That one disagreement had led to so many others as he and Jen realized they had far less in common than they previously thought. A shared secret of living in a far away galaxy in a lost city ought to have been more than enough for anyone but, surprisingly, it wasn't enough. Jen started dating some linguist who had shared their major secret of Atlantis and Pegasus, but who also loved small, yappy dogs, small towns like Chippewa Falls, and white picket fences.

When Atlantis headed back to Pegasus, Jen and her new husband were not on-board. Stargate Command had offered Jen the position of Chief Medical Officer at the SGC while Doctor Lam became the new CMO of Atlantis. 

"If I have one regret it's not so much losing Jen as losing Haydn," he whispered guiltily, even though he had made that choice between them.

They had been back in Pegasus for two months, and today he found a new message from Lauren in his mailbox after the weekly communication; he had clicked on it eagerly, even though Lauren owed him nothing anymore.

"He's gone. He's really gone."

Rodney breathed in deeply and nuzzled down into the dark fur beneath his face, rubbing his tear-stained cheek over soft hairs as he sought solace.

The soft noise vibrating beneath his ear was nothing like a cat's purr, more like a rumble of sadness and comfort, and Rodney raised his head to look into slitted, green-gold eyes. The low rumble became a soft murmur of a name as a hand gently stroked his hair and cheek.

"Rodney."

The hardest decision had been leaving Haydn behind on Earth while he stepped into the unknown all those years ago. But he realized today that the easiest decision had been knowing who to turn to for comfort, because it had always been John, even while Jen was his girlfriend, even while he was losing his mind. He looked up into John's face and was captured instantly by eyes filled with love and sympathy, wondering why he'd been so blind not to see this before.

John drew Rodney's head back down and dropped soft kisses against his hair as Rodney buried his head against John's hairy chest.

Warm arms wrapped around him, holding him tight as he grieved for a lost friend in the comforting embrace of another.

END


End file.
